Looking for stars in the east

The top employer of PGA Professionals around the world is continuing its international growth with new golf improvement facilities in Hong Kong and Singapore.

GOLFTEC is the world's largest golf instruction business with more than 600 coaches delivering around seven million lessons annually to players of all ages, gender and skill level.

With a 96 per cent success rate among students, GOLFTEC’s mission statement is simple – ‘to help people play better golf’.

All lessons are based on the company's ‘Five Factors’ - Fact-Based Diagnosis, Sequential Lessons, Video-Based Practice, Advanced Retention Tools, and TECfit® club fitting.

The company has a presence in almost all major cities in North America and now PGA Advanced Professional, Mark Henderson, is at the forefront of the Asia expansion.

“The GOLFTEC Asia expansion is one of a kind,” revealed Henderson, who has been a PGA qualified coach since 2008.

“GOLFTEC is the largest instruction company in America and has a proven track record of over 20 years, which we are now bringing to Asia. We believe GOLFTEC can withstand the test in Asia."

As for his reasons for joining the venture, Henderson continued: “I wanted to join a company that has plans to dominate the golf instruction market in Asia and believe that this can be achieved with the right focus and the right team."

“In major Asian cities, golf clubs and driving ranges are far and few in between and so it's not easy for golfers to take golf lessons or practice. Our aim with GOLFTEC in Asia is to make make golf instruction easy and accessible.”

The master license for GOLFTEC in the region was acquired by Pro Golf Asia Limited, founded by a group of local golf enthusiasts who were attracted by the opportunity to partner with GOLFTEC to bring state-of-the-art golf improvement facilities to the region.

Since acquiring the license in early 2016 they have opened a centre each in Hong Kong and Singapore and have plans to expand into four other countries in Southeast Asia.

Owner Anurag Mathur said: “To be true to our mission of helping people play better golf, we need to be able to attract the best PGA professionals from around the world and invest in them with the best there is in terms of teaching technology, ongoing education and opportunities for professional growth."

Henderson has taken on the role with GOLFTEC as the COO for South East Asia after successfully setting up the 27 Club in Tianjin, China, a private members Club owned by Pacific Links throughout 2015.

Prior to this Henderson was based at Mission Hills in China as the Director of Golf Academies where he worked closely with the PGA creating opportunities for PGA Professionals alike to advance their careers overseas at the world’s largest golf clubs.

Henderson added: “Since joining GOLFTEC in early 2016 I have realised that there is great scope for building out indoor golf improvement centres throughout Asia.

“However we really need good quality PGA Professionals who are ready to work hard and improve their skill sets.

“I think working overseas is not for everyone. It's for a small percentage of individuals.

“But if you are looking to grow your career overseas and want to teach there is no better company to join than GOLFTEC and with our in-house education program there is lots to learn on an ongoing basis.

"Coaches really become competent in all areas of being a successful coach not just technically, but also in area of managing customer relationship and marketing."

Recently GOLFTEC Asia have hired several PGA Professionals from around the world including British PGA Professionals, Matt Chalmers, Mattew Hough and Mathew Pryke who have all been working overseas for some years now.

If you are interested in working for GOLFTEC with one of the fastest growing instruction company in Asia email mhenderson@golftec.com for more details.